La Provincia

On Thursday 18 July 2019 in Duisburg Germany the Annual General Meeting of the IFA Group, which is a publicly owned company and listed on the stock exchange was held. IFA Group which also includes since 2016 via IFA Canarias SL and Anfi Invest AS owns a 50% stake in the Anfi Group which they purchased from the Lyng family for 41.3 million Euros in September 2016.

After a capital increase which is intended along with other things to acquire the remaining 50% share of Anfi, the company has a balance sheet totalling 467 million Euros, it is also now 76% owned by Lopesan Touristik SA of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The operating results after adjustment were only €7.4 million before tax due to various special items. With a positive contribution by IFA Canarias SL of €3.8 million including Anfi with € 2.4 million.

Anfi Gran Canaria

Although Anfi is jointly owned with a 50/50 split between IFA and the Cazorla Group, IFA actually has no say in the company as Cazorla has the “Golden Share”. Giving them total control, this is how it looks:

Grupo Santana Cazorla SL has a double vote on all the key decisions, with IFA only having 33% of the voting rights on these decisions. After the acquisition of the Lyng share, it became apparent that IFA is unable to actively participate in any financial and business policy decisions due to company-contractual agreements. Grupo Sanatana Cazorla SL, in fact, excludes IFA any participation in all business decisions, even important business meetings are held and conducted without IFA. But even so, IFA was able to acquire the balance sheets of the Anfi Group.

IFA has basically confirmed that it is being kept more or less in the dark and have no idea what is going on inside Anfi. This does look like Anfi is holding back very important information regarding their position from its own shareholders, this is definitely no way for a company to operate.

During the Annual General Meeting in Duisberg, the most interesting part was the questions and answer sessions. Unfortunately, these are not required to be published unlike the report of the AGM which should be published in around 1 month.

Due to the presence of Anfi insiders (including Inside Timeshares source), the IFA board was totally overwhelmed with questions concerning almost all the problems of Anfi. There was nothing left out and of particular importance were the questions regarding the solvency and the wave of complaints. Our source has limited these to only a few concrete statements:

By 31 December 2018 there were around 1,000 complaints at court;

The complaints would only lead to a deferred resale of withdrawn weeks;

In all cases Anfi claims it looks for agreement out of court;

Anfi has formed a €15.5 million risk reserve for that eventuality, (does this mean that IFA also has to contribute the same amount?);

IFA sees Anfi as solvent with some bearable risk;

A full takeover of Anfi is planned within the next 5 years:

There are also negotiations with the Mogan Community about a hotel in Tauro;

What we also know about this “partnership” is that IFA claims they were not aware of the “Cazorla Golden Share” until after they purchased the 50% from Ragnar Lyng. It was also confirmed by IFA that they have very limited access to the running of the business and information. This poses a very important question, as IFA is a multinational public company spending millions on this purchase, is it conceivable that they did not perform due diligence before committing to the purchase?

It has also transpired that IFA was also unaware of an article published in La Provincia in March 2019 that Anfi was employing delaying tactics with payouts ordered by the courts. Inside Timeshare found out after consulting CLA that there is €57,800,000 worth of claims. This now begs the question if IFA matches the 15.5 million set aside by Anfi bringing the total to €31 million, who will cover the rather large shortfall?

One thing is for sure, IFA is a very valuable company, they have recently spent $481 million on their new resort in the Dominican Republic, The Lopesan Costa Bávaro Resort, Spa & Casino which is a luxury 5-star hotel.

Costa Bávaro Resort, Spa & Casino Dominican Republic

So even with the Cazorla’s transferring funds between accounts to delay court-ordered payouts, IFA is in a very good position to cover these costs. For claimants this means only one thing, claim payouts will be 100% guaranteed.

It must also be pointed out that the number and value of claims set for the court is only the tip of the iceberg, this may yet rise significantly, especially with Anfi attempting to force members into new contracts. We have already seen two attempts with very little response from the membership.

There are many other questions which need answering but the one that comes up though enquiries to Inside Timeshare most often is if IFA does take full control of Anfi, where does this leave the members, will IFA continue with the “timeshare model”?

The answer that question still eludes everyone.

The one thing that is certain with the IFA revelations and this is great news for clients of CLA with cases in court is that they will now get paid when the court orders the return of their money.

It is alleged that Miguel authorised an unjustified payment of indemnity of 718,000€ to Arturo Ramirez for the position of “Institutional General Director”, a position that Santiago Cazorla claims Ramirez did not hold. It is claimed that it was a post created to justify the bonus in a pact instigated by the partners and Miguel Cazorla.

In his lawsuit Santiago Cazorla not only implicates his own brother but also includes some of his most trusted and closest partners such as Arturo Ramirez and including Manuel Fernández and Martin Suárez, who are also administrators of several other companies.

In testimony to the Judge, José Luis Trujillo, who was at the time these event took place the Director at Anfi, spent almost an hour in the presence of his lawyer and legal representatives explaining why this money was paid to Ramirez and what has happened to it.

José Luis Trujillo leaving the Court of San Bartelomé de Tirajana

Another aspect of the Lawsuit alleges that the “Institutional Director” had also provided professional service to Anfi Sales and Anfi Resorts during the periods of 29 March 2012 until 10 April 2018. It is alleged that he did not hold this position for which he was paid and also no contract.

Santiago Cazorla also states in his complaint that the defendants took advantage of their positions as directors of the companies, using their positions “of control of administration to effect this compensation”.

In a document presented to the judge it states that Miguel Santana Cazorla and Manuel Fernández ordered Banco Sabadell to make the transfer from Anfi Sales Accounts. Therefore the Judge has requested from Anfi Sales and Anfi Resorts minutes of the meeting when the Board of Directors agreed the compensation to Arturo Ramirez. The court has also requested the bank to provide all documentation regarding this transfer.

In the next few weeks all four defendants will be summoned before the judge, with Miguel Santana Cazorla appearing on 26 November.

Inside Timeshare will keep you updated on events as they unfold.

One thing about Anfi is they do always keep us riveted with all their (dodgy) dealings, so it doesn’t surprise us one iota that the brothers are now also at loggerheads!

We just wonder how all the members at Anfi feel about what has been going on, after all it is supposed to be their club and it is their money that is being misused. We also ask the question of those who are on the committees and have constantly supported Anfi under the Cazorla’s what they think now and will they continue to be stool pigeons for them?

It is with great sadness that Inside Timeshare announces the passing of Leo Gomez last Friday. Leo was a Vietnam Veteran with two Purple Hearts and was suffering from pancreatic cancer, he was 100% disabled from exposure to Agent Orange, he was also battling against Diamond and Barclays. His story was published here in our Friday’s Letter from America on 21 September, you can read his story at the links below.

Yesterday we broke the news published in La Provincia, that the Cazorla brothers Santiago Santana Cazorla and Manuel Cazorla, are battling each other in court, it revolves around a dispute for the payment of an indemnification of 718,000€ to Arturo Ramirez, a partner of Manuel Cazorla, for the position of general director at Anfi. It appears that this title has never existed and he has never worked in such a position. It also appears that this position was invented to justify payment from Anfi funds.

We wonder how the Anfi members now feel about this along with all the other scandals that have been taking place. One thing is for sure there is never a dull moment when it comes to Anfi. (See link to previous articles)

This is not a brand new company, their website was originally registered on 1 April 2015 and is due to expire on 1 April 2019, the registrant is hidden once again by privacy protect. They originally came to light several years ago with the usual resale scam of the guaranteed buyer.

The address is just a stones throw from the Port of Malaga and is in a residential area, although there is a shop which supplies mailbox services.

Our reader had a call from Canongate Marketing regarding his Diamond ownership, they explained that he had a claim which they would make on his behalf through the Spanish Courts. The amount of the claim is between £13,000 and £18,000. He explained that he no longer had any of the relevant paperwork, but that did not matter they could proceed without them, but he would have to fly to Spain to meet with them. They also act on a “no win no fee” basis and will take 60% of the returned amount.

Now we all know that lawyers fees will need to be paid before a case could go to court, also if there are no documents how could a case be prepared and taken to court?

So this leaves us with the million dollar question, what is the “bait and switch” for the client to have to travel, what are they going to “sell” to make their money?

We have no doubt there is going to be an elaborate scam involved, it is only a matter of time before we find the answer.

Well that’s it for today, if you have been contacted by any company or have found one on the internet and want to know if they are genuine, then use our contact page, we will be pleased to help.

Welcome to this week’s Letter from America, today we publish another “Nightmare on Timeshare Street”, this is the experience of the Cameron family and their dealing with Westgate. But as usual we bring you some news from Europe.

We start with the headlines in La Provincia published on 18 October 2018

The company accuses the businessman of stealing the boat and taking it to Morocco

Santiago Sanatna Cazorla at Court

It centers around Santiago Santana Cazorla“appropriating” a boat which the Anfi Group claims belongs to the company, of which Cazorla owns 50%, as the boat was included in the register of assets of the company until around 1 year ago, when Cazorla decided to transfer it to his name.

The Court of Instruction No1 of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, heard in testimony from Cazorla (17 October 2018), that he purchased the boat in 2012, he transferred the ownership of the vessel to Anfi Group“as part of the payment to forgive a debt”, however, he changed his mind and about the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017, began procedures to transfer the vessel back to his name.

In his testimony Cazorla assured the court that the vessel was his, something Anfi Group does not agree with, no agreement was reached.

Seeing other Westgate owners talk about their experiences has prompted me to do the same, in the hope that more people will come forward to put pressure on timeshare companies and regulators to take a closer look at timeshare sales practices we feel are unfair and deceptive.

It is obvious that Westgate, and I believe timeshare in general, has a recipe for success, designed to keep their money rolling in and my money rolling out.

I think I have figured out the secret ingredients!

Step 1: Over promise features and benefits. Add copious amounts of salt with one or two grains of truth.

Step 2: Make them your BFF. Then tenderize customer by forcefully kneading them with one sales pitch after another until they are flattened and easy to manipulate.

Step 3: Quickly gloss over the contract with a nice coating of sugar. Make sure to cover up the actual details of what the customer is buying so that they remain in the dark until much too late for them to cancel their contract. They call this the rescission period and it is quite easy for timeshare sales agents to dodge.

Step 4: Serve on a dirty plate with a fork. I call this plate foreclosure when the buyer finds out you bought something you can’t sell. What product is out there you can’t get rid of?

Step 3: When the customer realizes they have been served a steaming pile of something or other, pretend to be very concerned and run back to the kitchen and hide for months and months. The customer can listen to commercials about why you are happy to have invested in their timeshare while they wait on hold.

Step 5: Finally, when the customer is starting to cause a scene, have the monosyllabic thugs, Greenspoon Marder, eject them from the premises.

The Tennessee AG will be sitting at the next table, pretending like nothing happened while he tucks into his gourmet meal, although I did research and found out the TN AG helped Festiva victims recover $3.5 million.

I understand that the consumer needs to take charge here. If there are not enough complaints, as must be the case with Westgate, nothing will happen. I also learned the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau investigated Westgate for two years but dropped the investigation shortly after the presidential election.

That’s Westgate owner David Siegel, King of Versailles next to candidate Trump.

Here’s what happened to us

Salesmen, Jonathan Smith, and Mario Pineda (Manager) sold us a timeshare in July 2016 and convinced us that we were making a good, sound financial decision.

They said we were buying something that would:

Financially benefit us,

Allow us to make money renting our weeks and that they would help with this free of charge,

They said we would never have to pay the HOA fees because the rentals would pay for that,

They said we would hold a deed to the property and would own this property (Bldg 2041, Villa 302H and 302I). They left out the part that if you want to sell it nobody wants it,

It would be a great tax write off,

The equity would keep increasing.

Given all these benefits we signed the contract in good faith, thinking that we would get everything Westgate told us we would get and we would see some return on our “investment” which turned out to be anything but an investment. The reality is that we have not made a penny on this investment. None of the reasons for which we bought this timeshare exist.

While they may define this as real estate, what kind of real estate is worth nothing, except in disaster stricken zones? It is certainly not a tax write-off, it does not gain in value and it would therefore be stupid to pass it on to our family. We would only be passing on a liability.

On top of all this, our experiences at Westgate locations have been awful. We went to a Westgate property to enjoy time together as a family and wind down. Instead we were pressured to buy more and had our precious vacation time stolen.

The first time we went to Gatlinburg we booked a 3-day trip. We were invited to a presentation. They said it would last 90 minutes but we were held hostage for seven hours! This totally ruined our vacation, plus the loss of what little time we had was the cause of much stress.

All this stress came right back when we had our first full week stay and they tried to do and say anything to get us to upgrade to a more expensive unit and more weeks. They held us again for four hours. The stress of this again completely ruined my vacation.

It was after this last stay I started to have heart pain. When I went to the doctor he said it was stress related. This is when it really hit me that I can’t keep going through the stress of Westgate’s high pressure to buy more and more Westgate. My wife and I work very hard. We don’t get to take many vacations together, so do not enjoy spending our vacation in a bad mood after it feels like we underwent CIA manipulation techniques. Plus, we can’t afford to go through this again.

What Westgate is serving up is no good. We suggest you dine elsewhere.

Thank you to the Camerons for sharing their timeshare story. It is our hope that timeshare companies will read some of these accounts and think about ways to improve customer relations. We encourage members to submit articles, good or bad experiences, but the satisfied customer is less likely to reach out. They are having too much fun vacationing with a product they bought explained properly, compared to the family who feels they were duped.

These self-help websites and Facebooks are resources and provide a way for members to reach out to help other members.

We seek to provide members a way to proactively address membership concerns; to advocate for timeshare reform; to obtain greater disclosure from the company; to advocate for a viable secondary market; and to educate prospective buyers.

So that is another week over and the start of the weekend, join us again next week and remember to do your homework before engaging with any company. If you are not sure then use our contact page and we will point you in the right direction.

We start this week with a report from La Provincia, a Spanish newspaper published on the 25 August 2018. It reports on Operation Bankog by the Judicial Police of the Guardia Civil based out of Puerto Rico in the municipality of Mogan, Gran Canaria, they have broken an international ring which was dedicated to defraud foreign nationals.

The organisation was based in the Balearic Islands and Malaga, with five people being arrested, two spanish citizens, one Austrian one British and one German, with the seizure of twenty bank accounts which recovered more than 15,000 euros.

The members of the organisation represented themselves as Spanish Justice Administration officials, receiving payments into Spanish bank accounts for payments and public taxes in respect of a bankrupt timeshare located in Austria. These took place between 2014 and 2015, and involved around twenty members of the organisation from seven different countries.

During the initial stages, a complaint was verified which proved that victims had transferred around 20,000 euros into Spanish bank accounts. These accounts were located in Palma de mallorca and Malaga, with the Guardia Civil reporting that many of the account holders were foreign nationals with criminal records some having outstanding warrants from their home countries.

The Guardia Civil is also investigating the forging of official documents which were used to perpetrate the fraud. The case has been submitted to the relevant courts with the investigation continuing and further arrests have not been ruled out.

According to the Guardia Civil the investigation has take three years due to the complexity of the organisations infrastructure, the number of nationalities involved and the many bank accounts. They believe that the amount could be well in excess of half a million euros. It also involved the collaboration of various Interpol offices around Europe.

Inside Timeshare received information from a reliable source that the investigation was initiated by denuncias issued to the Guardia Civil in Mogan, by Canarian Legal Alliance on behalf of many of their clients.

As more information comes to light Inside Timeshare will bring you the news.

Click on the link below to see the original article, if using google the page can then be translated by right clicking on the article and selecting Translate from the menu.

The summer holidays are now at an end, so we issue our usual warning on doing your homework before dealing with any company that contacts you out of the blue, or even one you have found yourself on the internet. With maintenance fee bills about to be issued, the many scam companies will be in full swing to get your hard earned money. These will come in many guises, from resale scams, claims and cancellations, before doing any business, check, check and check again.

If you are unsure about any company and require help in find out about them, use our contact page and we will point you in the right direction. Inside Timeshare would also ask you to send any information about these companies to us, that way we can inform others of what is happening.

Considering August is usually a quiet month with all the holidays, Inside Timeshare has had quite a run on articles. We began August with news on the Tauro Beach Project entitled “Tauro Beach: In the UK News”.

This followed the publication of a story in The Guardian, a UK newspaper, on the importation of the sand used to build the beach, from Western Sahara. The article by Anders Lundqvist and Rowan Bauer, two independent journalists who investigated the possible illegal importation of the sand.

They explained that if this sand did originate from the Western Sahara, which it most certainly looks like, it was against UN Resolutions and rulings from the European Court of Justice. In their article they quote the head of SEPRONA in Gran Canaria, Lt Germán Garciá who stated “The sand was brought illegally, it was discharged with no control at all,” we know this has caused concern among environmentalist on the Island, as there is a protected area just 300 meters off the beach.

For the full story follow the links at the end of this article.

The following day we published the Mid Week Report, this started with the news that TATOC had truly gone as their website is no longer accessible. It was then followed with a link to The Canary News, an English language newspaper based in Gran Canaria. The Canary News article by Ed Timon, the editor, gave a very good insight into the history of Western Sahara, which was the subject of the previous article.. (Again see links below).

We also published the first article of the month from Irene Parker, from our US branch, this was to do with a lawsuit in the US by Welk Resorts against Timeshare Exit Team. This is the first in a series of articles highlighting lawsuits by timeshare developers against resale / exit companies and law firms.

Loyalty: No Such Thing in Timeshare was the title of the next article. This highlighted Timeshare Compensation’s blog on Silverpoint now known as Signallia. In this blog Timeshare Compensation warns its readers of the “dodgy” past of this company, which was very surprising indeed as the owner of Timeshare Compensation,Mark Rowe, is an ex-senior sales manager of Silverpoint and thereby employee of Robert “Bob” Trotta. Told you there were some strange things in the world of timeshare!

In our first Friday’s Letter from America for the month, we published the article by Eron Grant, this covered the question of why does ARDA have a code of ethics? One question we have also asked of the RDO.

Once again that family of fake law firms in Tenerife came up, yes you know the ones, Litigious Abogados.

We then published “Truth, What is Truth?” This was in response to readers enquiries about Anfi denying losing any court cases. This has caused confusion among members, after all these cases have been publicised in the press, yet Anfi tell everyone it is not true! So who do you believe?

In the next Friday’s Letter from America, we published Part 4 “Our DRI Misadventures” by David Franks. He Joined our team of writers from the US, some months ago and has given us a great deal of fun. He certainly has a style of his own and is a welcome member to the team.

We then started our “Hug Your Haters! A Customer Service Message” by Irene Parker, this is based on the book Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer. He is to be a keynote speaker at the Interval International Shared Ownership Conference to be held at the Miami Beach Eden Roc Hotel October 23 – 25. Mr. Baer has advised more than 700 companies including The United Nations and 32 Fortune 500 companies.

Next came the news of a story we published last year, it involved The Manhattan Club in New York. The NY AG Eric T Schneiderman had suspended all sales at the club back in July 2014, this followed many complaints of deceitful practises. The case is now finally over, with a settlement of $6.5 million, also the owners are being forced to sell and have been barred from participating in the timeshare industry. Well done Eric, one for the consumer!

NY AG Eric T Schneiderman

Once again Karen Garello from our Timeshare Advocacy, contributed another “Secret Shopper Report”. In this article, Karen gives sound advice on the questions you should ask when going on a sales presentation. Following her advice could save a lot of problems in the future.

It was back to Europe for our next piece, this was titled “ Timeshare In the Press”. This was actually very timely as it followed on from the Truth What is Truth article, it was based on the article in the Spanish paper El Diario. It highlighted the Supreme Court rulings, mainly against the Tenerife company Silverpoint, who just like Anfi deny any cases going to court or being lost.

It also included the article published in The Canary News, based on the one from the paper La Provincia, this began with a recap of the groundbreaking first Supreme Court ruling back in March 2015. Again throwing out the claims of the timeshare industry that these are all fictitious cases.

There followed a couple more articles by Irene Parker and a Timeshare Advocate. The first highlighted the lawsuits between developers and law firms, the second was an open letter to the timeshare industry. Whether they take any notice is another thing.

In The Monday Briefing, we again focused on the Litigious Abogados family, giving a recap on how they operate their rather sophisticated scam, but also some sound advice which if followed will protect you from becoming one of their victims.

In the same article we welcomed and wished all the best to a new forum for timeshare owners, Timeshare Users Forum. This has been set up by disgruntled members of Timeshare Talk, a previously independent forum. We won’t go into detail here, but you can read the full article.

The last article for August was Part II of Hug Your Haters: A Customer Service Message.

So that is it for August, tomorrow we don’t cross the great lake to the US, we go to the land down under, for another Letter from Australia, contributed by Justin Morgan, on the role of private equity and the secondary market in timeshare. Do join us and bring your didgeridoo!

Following on from some of the previous articles regarding court cases and the fact that many of the timeshare companies are denying they have taken place, El Diario, a Spanish newspaper has published an article which confirms these cases are genuine.

(Bring up the link below, right click on the article and choose translate)

In their article entitled “Eight Supreme Court rulings annul in one month `timesharing´ contracts in Tenerife for more than 400,000 euros”, they explain the cases against Silverpoint. El Diario explain that the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court issued in the space of 10 days, between Monday 10 July and Thursday 20 July, a total of eight judgements against Silverpoint.

They go on to state that since the start of the year Canarian Legal Alliance has accumulated 18 rulings from the Supreme Court against this one company alone. Many of these cases had been won at the Court of First Instance, were then taken to the High Court on appeal and eventually to the Supreme Court, which returns a verdict in favour of the customer.

Silverpoints contention that these consumers are “investors” has in the past been accepted by the High Court in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with the Supreme Court overturning that verdict. Silverpoint still contend that they sold a product which consumers eventually would sell and return a “profit”, making them “investors”.

What the Supreme Court has stated is these “consumers” for a substantial amount of money have purchased the right to use with annual maintenance fees, along with the addition of the possibility of resale. The court believes that this firmly brings the product into the scope of the law 42/98 on timeshare, and therefore they are afforded the full protection of the law as consumers.

The difference between what Silverpoint have been selling and that sold by other companies is quite simple, Silverpoint have on their presentations sold the product with the express promise of a sale in two years, in which the consumer will make at least a 15% profit. We all know that part of the sales pitch is “when you no longer want to use it you can sell it”, “that it will go up in value”. The fact is, according to the EU directives on timeshare it should not be sold as an investment.

Another publication to highlight the rulings of the Supreme Court, is the English language newspaper The Canary News. Last Friday 18 August, they published a translated version of the article in La Provincia, another Spanish newspaper.

It starts with a recap of the groundbreaking case of Mrs Tove Grimsbo against Anfi, brought by the CLA lawyer Miguel Rodriguez Ceballos. This case opened the door for thousands of timeshare owners to annul their contracts and seek justice, following years of flouting the law by the timeshare companies.

Miguel Rodriguez Ceballos

So once again we have to ask the question “who is telling the truth, do you believe the timeshare companies who have for years misled consumers, or do you believe the news from the courts published in various journals”?

We know who we believe, the evidence is there in black and white, not just published in newspapers but by the courts themselves in the official bulletins which make the rulings public. The timeshare companies have only themselves to blame for their present predicament, for too long they have believed they were above the law, by continuing their denial of these facts they are just destroying for good a once decent product.

If you have any questions about this subject, or want to know if you have an illegal contract and are eligible to bring a case and how to do so, contact Inside Timeshare and we will point you in the right direction.

Do you have a story about your experiences and would like to share, then we would like to hear from you. This is your forum to be heard, with your contributions we can publish the truth about what is going on in the world of timeshare.

We ended last week with the ongoing story of Mrs B, now known as Mrs Price and her continuing battle against MacDonald Resorts. The article explained the events leading up to the present dispute over a “So-called” debt for past maintenance and MacDonald Resorts refusal to accept she no longer owns.

In the article “The Story of Mrs B: Open Letter to MacDonald Resorts” Inside Timeshare called for MacDonald Resorts to do the right thing and let two elderly and not well ladies out of their contract. It also called for them to call off the debt collecting agency Network Credit Services, from issuing threats of legal action. So far there has been no response, even though they did receive the article via email along with many others including several newspapers. The story continues.

On Monday we published an article by Irene Parker, entitled “Another US Attorney General Exposes Deceptive Tactics”. This was originally published the previous week but was withdrawn for re-writing.

Irene in her article also spoke about how sales agent are made to commit these practices, and were prevented from saying anything due to confidential non-disclosure agreements. She is preparing part II of this article which Inside Timeshare will publish in due course.

Irene Parker was surprised to read such similarities from her Highland Resorts article on Timeshare Consumer Association as it so closely paralleled the article she wrote this week. The same thing happened the day after she wrote the Saldana family story. As the TCA article was published so soon after the Inside Timeshare article was published, she wondered why credit was not given to the author of the original article. This is how professional journalists do things in the US. She wondered if things were different in Europe. She is glad to see the information disseminated to a wider audience. Since she is planning on writing a second part, she wondered if TCA would like her to just send them her article so they could publish it under her name?

On Tuesday news came in about the saga that is Tauro Beach Project, La Provincia (Spanish daily paper) and Canary News (local English language paper), published the story about how much of the beach has been washed away by the sea.

Inside Timeshare has been following this story since August, when the sea flowed up the beach and flooded local homes. There is currently a huge investigation underway, which also includes the Mayor of Mogan. It is also investigating alleged corruption and impropriety at the highest levels of the Canarian Coastal Authority, the former head has already been formally charged with wrongdoing in public office and forgery of official documents. The case is already at the court of San Bartolomé de Tirajana in Maspalomas.

Yesterday, we published the story of a company that was highlighted in September, Litigious Abogados. Since the first publication, more information has come to light, with one reader supplying vital information about how they are operating. This reader also provided documentary evidence with court papers and bank details, these court papers are almost certainly fake. Below is a “stamp” we have made in around 2 minutes just from a google image download and basic windows paint, with a little more work it could be made to look better. It is also a “stamp” not used by the courts.

The week has also been a good one for clients of Canarian Legal Alliance, with several more victories in various courts.

Yesterday 15 November, saw 2 more announcements, the first was for Swedish clients of CLA being awarded over 114,000€ including legal interest against Anfi. Again the High Court No 5 of Las Palmas found in accordance with the Supreme Court that floating weeks and perpetuity contracts were illegal. The contract was again declared null and void.

In the second announcement, again Swedish clients, have been paid out 72,885.78€ in compensation, following a recent judgement. This was against Holiday Club Finland / Puerto Calma. Again the ruling made was for the length of the contract, over 50 years (perpetuity) with the contract being declared null and void.

So an early Christmas present for some.

This again goes to show, through the hard work of the legal team at CLA, their clients are finally getting justice and the Supreme Court rulings are having a profound effect on the lower courts.

If you would like any further information on articles published, contact Inside Timeshare and we will be pleased to help. Also if you have any questions about any company that you are not sure about, send us a message, we will then contact you by personal email and if we don´t know them we will help you find the answers.

Nature is now taking its own course on Tauro Beach, La Provincia, has today published the latest in the debacle that is the AnfiTauro Beach project. The Canary News which is the English language paper in Gran Canaria, has also published the news on their website.

The warnings that were given about the nature of the tides and waves by locals have come to life, a huge chunk of the beach has now been washed away, revealing what is left of the original pebble beach.

The project to create an artificial beach involved importing 70,000 tonnes of sand from the Western Sahara, this was laid after the old pebble beach was removed. It was also laid without first being treated, this say environmentalists, could cause problems due to invasive species being in the sand. It has already had some detrimental effects on the marine area that is protected which is only 300 meters away.

It is now only 5 months since Anfi stated that work was now completed and weeks after the announcement that Anfi was to lose the concession and rights to run the beach for profit over the next 50 years. This was announced by the Canarian Government with the initial proceedings taking place at the Court of San Bartolome de Tirajana.

The beach has been closed to the public since work began and is still fenced off. Canary News also makes reference in their article about the major investigation being conducted for “corruption investigation and accusations of impropriety at the highest levels of the Canarian Coastal Authority”. We have already seen one prosecution of the former head of the authority and are just waiting for the court to complete the trial. The Mayor of Mogan is also currently under investigation and it remains to be seen how many more people end up being prosecuted.

Back in August, we saw the homes of the local people being flooded which ended up with a barrier being built to protect homes from flooding again, now with the sand being washed away, what of the remaining beach, after all we have not yet seen the winter storms or very high tides yet.

So the story goes on, as more news comes in, Inside Timeshare will publish it here. If you have any comment or questions about any article published, or if you have some information you would like to share, please use the contact form on the website.

The newspaper La Provincia on 27 November 2016 has published news on the ongoing problems with the Tauro Beach Project, it has been announced that the Canary Island Government is to revoke the concessions awarded to Anfi for the development of this area.

It transpires that Anfi are being stripped of the concession and being accused of starting the work without providing the correct paperwork. They have also been accused of encroaching on land that was not part of the original project and not completing the project correctly. It appears that they have only laid sand on a fraction of the beach, 1300 sq meters and not the 3811 sq meters as agreed. Environmentalist are also up in arms as the 70,000tonnes of sand imported from the Sahara has not been treated. This according to them means it could contain “invasive species”, which could have a detrimental effect on the local environment.

The current permits allow Anfi to develop the beach area, building hotels, commercial center and beach services for profit, with the concession running for 50 years. Because of the infractions uncovered, the licences and permits will be revoked, with initial proceedings being heard at the local court of San Bartolome de Tirajana.

This is certainly a huge blow for the Anfi Group and the new 50% owners Lopesan. The financial consequences of this could be huge, it may mean that Anfi will have to spend to put things right, but it also means they have lost the huge investments already made in the project.

It now remains to be seen what will happen next, will there be more charges as the investigation continues?

How is this all going to affect Anfi as a whole, will it mean an increase in maintenance to help cover the losses incurred in the project?

As the investigation goes on, Inside Timeshare will bring you the news as it comes out.

If you have any questions about this story, contact Inside Timeshare and we will be pleased to answer them. If you have any information about this or any other subject Inside Timeshare would like to hear from you.